diy solar

diy solar

Cinergi's 28 kWh / 4 kW Solar / 10 kW inverter RV build

Mr. Cinergi,

I have two questions which I would love to hear your thoughts on.

1) Since you do not have a generator, why quattro over multiplex?
2) Do you have more batteries than you need by a large factor
3) If you had only 120 volt needs would you have gone with a single larger 10k quattro?
4) Are you happy with what you did? Would you change anything?
 
apcorob said:
Mr. Cinergi,

I have two questions which I would love to hear your thoughts on.

1) Since you do not have a generator, why quattro over multiplex?
2) Do you have more batteries than you need by a large factor
3) If you had only 120 volt needs would you have gone with a single larger 10k quattro?
4) Are you happy with what you did? Would you change anything?
Click to expand...

(following on the jokes) I have two answers!

1) Quattro's I chose for several reasons: 48v, 5kva per leg, and multiple input *in case* I did a hard-wired generator (I would have done a permanent generator if it weren't so expensive; I'm still on the fence). MP at 3kva (2400 watts) per leg was too close for comfort, plus of course the 48v requirement.
2) I'm finding that 28 kWh is a good size - I can get away with 2-3 days of rainy conditions before I have to consider plugging in / generator. I typically use 25-30% overnight .. if the battery was half the size, that would have been 50-60 overnight which I wouldn't be happy with. If anything, I would add more batteries because I frequently "throw away" solar energy due to full battery
3) Based on what I know now, I would have gone with a single 5k or maybe 8k .. 10k is too much. I typically use < 2kW and my highest peak was like 4kW
4) Very happy; the only thing I'd change would be physical arrangement/location because I'm having trouble cooling the RV basement (batteries are getting too warm) and having only one access point to the basement makes getting at stuff in there a PITA
 
Mike8061 said:
When you say 5k or 8k are you talking single quattro with auto transformer?
Click to expand...

My answer #3 is in response to the question about the hypothetical situation where I only needed 120v in the rig -- so no, no autotransformer in that case; just a single Quattro providing only 120v. But I need 240v in the rig and I also wanted to be able to use 120v or 240v shore power.

I will add, however, that I could probably have just limited myself to 120v shore input (15/30/50 amp single leg) and gone with a single quattro with an AT on the output side. I suppose that would be a modification to the design that I would highly consider. 50 amps at 120v is more than enough juice. Would have saved a lot of money and a fair amount of inverter idle waste.
 
Thank you for more than answering my two questions

Do you mind telling us (off topic apology) what program you used to prepare your diagram. I am going to copy much of your HARD work and thank you very much. If you want and are willing to share your diagram in its original base format it would save me a few hours of work and would be worth some serious good wine. Pl let me know if that is in the cards.
Rob
 
apcorob said:
Thank you for more than answering my two questions

Do you mind telling us (off topic apology) what program you used to prepare your diagram. I am going to copy much of your HARD work and thank you very much. If you want and are willing to share your diagram in its original base format it would save me a few hours of work and would be worth some serious good wine. Pl let me know if that is in the cards.
Rob
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I used draw.io ... here's the raw file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3bv1or0ir7qvjvx/NH Electrical V3.drawio?dl=0
 
I can't remember where this question was previously asked, months ago .. but, I just tested what happens when connecting to 208 (the result of connecting to "240v" power from 3-phase commercial source). Only 1 of the Quattro's connects. It does NOT pass through both legs. It's possible if I lowered the minimum AC voltage that it would but I was OK with it connecting to only 1 leg. I really don't need more than 50 amps at 120 anyway as I mentioned before. The progressive EMS passed through both legs just fine, but the Quattro's accepted only one of them.
 
That's an interesting find, I haven't read on to your point since I went with the single Quattro (on YOUR advice ? )

So you think it's initial setup setting or based on demand? I'm interested to know what you find out.
 
Boondock Saint said:
That's an interesting find, I haven't read on to your point since I went with the single Quattro (on YOUR advice ? )

So you think it's initial setup setting or based on demand? I'm interested to know what you find out.
Click to expand...

I'm no longer at the location to test and I had no real incentive to try. Since the minimum voltage setting is a per-leg setting (120v), I'd guess there's no way to do it.
 
Assuming they're synchronized for 120/240V, the other leg is out of phase by 60 degrees.
If you could program them for 120/208Y, you might get both legs to go through.

Good if it does connect one leg, generates the other leg of 120/240V from battery, and charges battery from grid on the first leg. Then you've got 240V from a single phase 120v outlet.
 
Hedges said:
Assuming they're synchronized for 120/240V, the other leg is out of phase by 60 degrees.
If you could program them for 120/208Y, you might get both legs to go through.

Good if it does connect one leg, generates the other leg of 120/240V from battery, and charges battery from grid on the first leg. Then you've got 240V from a single phase 120v outlet.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was wondering if it wasn't 180 degrees out of phase and that would definitely explain why it wouldn't connect the other leg.
And yeah it's pretty awesome that i have 240v split phase inside no matter what I connect to (it does exactly as you described)! Love these Quattro's :)
 
I'm boondocking (finally!) .. in the badlands of South Dakota (USA).. and it's HOT (although not like the 120-130 western US heat wave). 100 today. My batteries are getting too warm :( I need to solve that problem. But anyway ...

Overnight low last night was about 70 ... LR set to 70 until bedtime .. then 74. BR set to 64 overnight. Between sunset and sunrise I ate about 40% of my battery! Yeah, using a lot more power to keep this thing cool :) (normal is 25-30%)

Today I saw the most wattage, by far, from the mini-split. About 1800 watts. It's 10pm here now and it only JUST started tapering down (1000 watts). Still about 84 outside.

12k LR and 9k BR cassettes. I ended up using a fan to move air from BR to LR. LR peaked at 78 degrees. It's now 70 and falling. I will probably leave the ACs set to 64 so I can start the day cold and also try to use the cold air to cool the batteries overnight (they reached 90F).
Forecast calls for 102 tomorrow, then 106, then 104, and then cooling off to 90 (cooling off.. lol!).

Today I ran the generator and pumped in about 5.5 kWh - got to 95% SoC and then shut down. I'm already at 72% battery. I consumed 26kWh so far today. Generated 24 in solar. I deployed my ground mount (400 watts) because I know I'm needing as much solar as I can get in this heat.

Good times! Considering I'm in an RV in this kind of heat and the long side of my rig faces west and I have no awnings there yet (they owe me those awnings still), I'm baking the RV a bit so that's not helping.

Not something I'd normally choose to do; but I wanted to be here and I didn't want the heat to further mess up my plans (they're already messed up). And it's a bit of a science experiment ... I'll better understand what my rig can do.

Live Stats: https://vrm.victronenergy.com/installation/76892/share/d5bbdd04
See also: https://vrm.victronenergy.com/installation/76892/advanced
 
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